


toxic

by orphan_account



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-22
Updated: 2017-01-22
Packaged: 2018-09-19 06:41:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9422891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Kuroko Tetsuya is a mystery that Kise is going to get to the bottom of, sooner or later.





	

_ Kuroko Tetsuya consumes you whole _ , or so Akashi says, with his eyes down into his shogi game, with the ghosts of the past when he is an illusion of the future, with a lack of tone where one cannot tell if he’s joking or about to reveal to you the deep secrets of the world. A mixture of both, Ryouta has learned with time, but sometimes he wishes his friend was more direct with his word choice.

_ Who is he, anyway? You’re always talking about him, Akashicchi. _

_ Kuroko Tetsuya is Kuroko Tetsuya. _

Ryouta doesn’t question him further, and for some time that’s barely relevant.

\---

Nights are strangely cold at Akashi’s place. He keeps the windows wide open, even in winter, and while he’s draped under dozens of layers, Ryouta regrets his decision to, once again, be the lovely guest and sleep on the couch. He doubts Akashi would’ve let him take the bed even after hours of begging and crocodile tears —there are some things Ryouta really can’t win at, and as a general rule Akashi Seijuurou is the owner of all of them.

_ Except Kuroko Tetsuya. _

He can’t sleep, so he takes his phone to text Midorima in the hope that he is somehow miraculously awake at two in the morning, when no sane soul (other than Ryouta and his worries) would be. Midorima turns out to be his jackpot.

**> mi-do-ri-ma-cchi!!**

**> Why in the world are you awake.**

**> im at akashicchi’s place ;;w;;**

**> What do you want?**

**> im bored and wanna talk. **

**> Go die.**

**> hey, hey. something’s been bugging me. who’s kuroko tetsuya?**

Midorima takes a full ten minutes to respond.

**> Kise. Go to bed.**

**> YOU NEVER ANSWERED ANY OF MY QUESTIONS??**

**> Goodnight. Dream of whatever it is you dream.**

Ryouta sends Midorima around fifteen other texts, all marked as seen, but he never gets a reply (not until the morning, when a very questionably typed “go to heck” wakes Ryouta up at an hour that he doesn’t like.)

In the dead of the night, Kuroko Tetsuya is a bigger mystery than in the warm light of the day, but Ryouta’s willing to get to the bottom of it, because curiosity killed the cat, and he’s got all nine lives to spare if it’s to satisfy his.

\---

He initially heard of Kuroko Tetsuya during their first summer training camp, somewhere in between Aomine’s complaints about Murasakibara blocking the doorway because he  _ refused _ to move till he was done eating, Midorima’s rounds of the place to check that it wasn’t haunted or in bad harmony with his energies, and Akashi for once leaving his elegance at the door to lounge on the porch and read a book under everyone else’s careful gaze.

Summer training camp meant everyone trained, and the Miracles took a break. Ryouta was among those lucky few, for the first time; a breath of fresh air that he was there to  _ observe _ and not participate. A level he planned to surpass, with time, but which at that moment was all the glory he needed to bask in.

Out of nowhere, Murasakibara was the one who let the cat out of the bag. It was always him.

“He isn’t here.”

“He’s never here,” Aomine shot back, having given up on moving Murasakibara, and now simply sitting behind him to make an attempt at tying his hair. “I don’t know why you’re surprised.”

“Akachin said he saw him last night.”

“I did,” Akashi replies, nose in his book, but his left foot was twitching with attention. “He came, and he left. Left some sweets for you, Mura.”

Ryouta felt like he shouldn’t have intruded, but in his gut, that place that always made the bad decisions, he  _ knew  _ he had. So he did.

“Who isn’t here?”

Silence. 

And then, Akashi’s reply.

“Kuroko Tetsuya.”

“Who?”

Since that afternoon, his conversations with the rest of the team —except Akashi, but oh, Akashi was  _ thrilled _ by Ryouta’s painful curiosity—stiffened. It was also then that he decided to pursue this dream, this fleeting sensation, this  _ Kuroko _ that only his captain will occasionally tease him about and everyone else pretend isn’t real.

Kise Ryouta was not going to lose.

\---

In the morning, Akashi is the first in the kitchen, despite Ryouta being the one who hasn’t slept. It’s like a race, one of the little things Akashi does to show his superiority without having to put it into words or more complicated actions—I am here first, I cook, I  _ rule _ . Ryouta doesn’t mind. At first he did, yes, but once he’d realized that all of the Miracles, including himself, had that same tendency to show off, he’s accepted that Akashi is simply better at it, and not necessarily better at what he’s showing off.

And yet, he still wins. Kuroko Tetsuya lingers as the exception.

Akashi has confirmed that he can’t predict Kuroko, that he can’t guess his whims, that, whatever it is, Kuroko is as surreal to him as he is to the others. It intrigues Ryouta. He, the one who knows less about this secret, is the one who perhaps holds the power to materialize it, to make it his, to come out on top.

He wants to.

He is  _ going _ to.

“You asked Midorima about Kuroko again.”

Ryouta chokes on his pickle. “Wh—”

“No need to hide. He didn’t tell me. I guessed.”

“Is there anything you don’t know?” Ryouta pouts, and finishes his pickle. He grabs one from Akashi’s plate at the cost of possibly being killed later that night.

“Hmm… no.”

“Lies!”

“Can you prove it?”   
  
“I—” Ryouta goes silent, and accepts this  _ deuce _ for once. Sometimes it surprises him that Akashi spends so much time with him, and then he remembers that they’re in this game, that they’re searching for Kuroko Tetsuya  _ together _ yet  _ alone _ , and that Akashi loves laying down all his cards to pretend that he has no trumps, but his trumps are hidden right before the naked eye. The strangest kind of camaraderie, that of rivaling for a common goal that you refuse to reach together.

Akashi smiles. “Thought so.” He steals one of Ryouta’s sausages and calls it a day. “Did Midorima answer your question?”   
  


Ryouta huffs. “No.”

“Typical. You should try asking someone who’d actually tell you what you want to know.” With a silent slurp of all his noodles, Akashi sets the bowl down, thanks for the meal, and stands up. His eyes linger on Ryouta’s enough for him to realize that  _ Oh, you bastard _ .

“Why would you help me? Unless —tch, you think that even with your help, I can’t find him? I’m smarter than you take me for.”

“Ah, no, quite the contrary. I think you’re really smart, Kise, in a different way than the rest of us. You’ve got this something we don’t. But you know I like seeing you run in circles, like a dog chasing his tail. Or rather, a fox, whichever you prefer.”

“I don’t want to be compared to an animal!”

Ryouta does the washing up. It’s Sunday, with no class to worry about, when even Akashi won’t think about practice and decide it’s time to do rich Akashi things (the few times he can, with his parents not home; sometimes, Ryouta wonders if Akashi asks him to come out of actual loneliness, but how out of character would that be? It’s hard to read Akashi Seijuurou, context or not.).

“Of course not. Would you prefer I pick a bird?”

“No! That aside, if you’re going to answer my questions,  _ who _ —”

“Not the easy ones, Kise.”

“H-hmph.” Alright. Ryouta will step on his pride,  _ temporarily _ , and not long enough for Akashi to notice that he’s done it. “Is he a Teikou student?”

“Yes.” Akashi leans with his elbow on the counter, studying Ryouta with attention, or better said, poorly pretending he doesn’t think he already knows everything. That is a lie. Ryouta is sure that he has a trump card in his ability, in where its limits lie—in where they don’t. Not even  _ he _ knows how much he could improve some day, so how could Akashi read something that isn’t written? The idea that he can be at least a little puzzling for his teammate is a satisfying way to start the day.

So, Kuroko Tetsuya is a student at Teikou. He’d figured as much, but why has Ryouta never actually  _ seen _ him?

“Does he play basketball?”

“Yes.”

_ Can’t be _ .

“Is… is he on our team?”

“Yes.”

_ Can’t be. _

“Is he part of —”

“Yes.”

_ Can it? _

“You’re lying to me.”

“Kise, you know I don’t lie.” And with that, he disappears into the salon to practice his violin lessons, while Ryouta is left with a pit in his stomach and the thought that maybe he should go home tonight, stop asking, forget, but if he  _ forgets _ about Kuroko and moves on he’s lost, he’s weak, he might as well not go to Teikou anymore.

That’s where the solution might be. School.

On a Sunday night, without anyone’s knowledge except the ignored texts from both Akashi and Midorima at midnight, Kise Ryouta sneaks into his own school, hoping to get some answers.

On a Monday morning, Kise Ryouta is never seen again.

\---

Kuroko Tetsuya is real, and Kuroko Tetsuya consumes you whole. Akashi really did tell the truth. He is a member of their team, a crucial component, a ghost or a god or a demon or…  _ something _ , the manifestation of their own desires to win, that joins them on the field and brings them to glory like their own feet could only dream of.

Ryouta has noticed many times, how his passes have made it miraculously to the other side of the court, how he’s found himself with the ball in his hands like by miracle, how Akashi always kept the corner of his eye behind him, how Midorima waited before shooting, how Murasakibara and Aomine thanked the thin air every time the game got turned around because it wasn’t the thin air, it was Kuroko, it was  _ Kuroko _ .

Kuroko, a mass of ethereal silks, a smile that sucks out your soul and doesn’t give it back because it wants to dance, a light blue that would leave the clearest of skies jealous with a simple glance. He stands in front of Ryouta, when the moon is high and full, when the basketball court is empty but for them, and he reminds Ryouta what he is with an unnoticeable step closer, close enough for Kuroko’s icy breath to steal away Ryouta’s warmth.

He doesn’t mind.

_ Didn’t Akashi-kun warn you? _

_ He did. _

_ And what do you think? _

_ You are… a sight… Kurokocchi. _

_ You’re brave to nickname a spirit. _

_ I’d be foolish to not call it anything. _

Ryouta comprehends now, in the daze of Kuroko’s bony fingers on his cheek, why Akashi has no hold on him, why Kuroko is the only thing that can escape any mortal’s grasps, no matter how powerful (at the back of his mind, he can also imagine Aomine’s fury at something that he can’t touch but can touch him, at something that he’ll never  _ beat _ .) The Generation of Miracles are all the same—Only Kuroko is different, the shadow, the sixth player that blesses, and  _ demands _ in return.

Lives, Ryouta’s life, the one he’s charmed into giving away, probably like many before him, and many after. Teikou’s secret.

The price of victory.

There is a bitter taste in Ryouta’s mouth, but it’s silenced out by Kuroko’s lips on his.  _ You found the truth, Kise-kun. How do you feel? _

_ I won _ ,  _ Kurokocchi. _

_ I don’t see how… _

_ I found you. _

\---

Another bright smile, another member to the team. From the shadows, Kuroko watches, Ryouta’s essence and ambitions still heavy on his lips, and in the same silence that he came with, he leaves Teikou to its own fate of impending crumbling.

**Author's Note:**

> this is a repost of an old work of mine that i took down for some reason (i mean, i did have a reason, but now i feel kind of bad about it so...it's back). i haven't been able to write anything new lately and hated that my account was empty, so i put this up because i'm still proud of it.  
> i hope you enjoy it as much as i did writing it.  
> ps. i forgot my original title so this one will have to do.  
> ps2. a friend and i started a knb discord you are more than welcome to join [here](https://discord.gg/Xh7GK7e)!


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